Archive for the ‘Chris’ tag

The usual assumption about the Antwerp Pre-metro within the exploring community is that the ‘pre’ represents the fact it hasn’t opened yet. Not correct. The Pre-metro is actually a properly dug and operating metro system, which is just not running metro stock yet. During the IDM weekend, we followed Patch, Site and Jess down into the live network for a look around. Read the rest of this entry »

When it snows, go in Drains. A few Gentlemen and I decided to participate in COTS in December 2010, having seen a few delightful pics of the system online. This section of Collossus of the South was everything I was expecting it to be, more impressive even than Hastings’ Stinger storm drain, with a deliciously different feature; the plughole that leads down from the Victorian sections.Read the rest of this entry »

Charleroi has 6km of disused by completed metro line, incorporating 4 stations and connecting to the existing metro. Don’t get too excited however, this isn’t a veiny network of tunnels under the city like Antwerp’s premetro, nor is it a line genuinely under construction. It’s simply a railway that was built in the 1980s, connected to the metro lines and unfeasibly, never opened. Read the rest of this entry »

“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.” (Vladimir Putin, 2000.)

Gotha

Take your eyes off the pothole ridden minor roads of the former DDR and chances are you’ll be looking at something concrete that was built by the Soviets. My introduction to the remains of the Soviet Union came in 2008, with the Beelitz-Heilstätten sanatorium providing an ample opportunity for a day of roaming around the vast, derelict campus, taking photos of the peeling paint and lnely chairs. Although at the time I visited, I understood little of the involvement of the Soviet Union in this complex’s history, my interest has evolved and I’ve learned of the Sanatorium’s footnote as the ultimate destination for the DDR’s president Erich Honecker as his country collapsed into westernisation. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like ages now since we went to Rubix. Just a long brick pipe with a little junction at one end. It’s fed by the River Effra, long since buried under the streets of South London and turned into a sewer. Rubix itself is known as the South Western Storm Sewer, essentially there to collect the overflow from the sewer when it rains. Read the rest of this entry »

With the thrill of Molitor being the presiding memory from our Paris adventure, the desire to tap the keyboard over our night in the 14th arrondissement was nulled perhaps. London was reminded what it was missing in the few days proceeding our return and it seemed like business as usual with visitors such as Steve Duncan, Brick Man and Urban Fox arriving at the Brad:pad War-room to partake , other adventures fading into the memory. Read the rest of this entry »

Metro Chien sat patiently while Maitre-Chien chatted with Marc, disbelieving everything he was being told. “You came down the tunnels? Pas possible!” Claire Elise translated although I don’t think any of us believed that 5 minutes of scattergun French could boil down to a single sentence. Myself, Statler, Gary and Patch sat in the tunnels, backs to the wall, confused at everything that was going on. Read the rest of this entry »

One more left, then I’ll finally stop writing about this trip! Again, written from the road. The best bits are fueled by some 500ml bottles of Becks. Happy days. I write a lot because I think the trip was significant in a number of ways in terms of how I view ‘Urbex’ and the lifestyles we adopt to fulfil our aspirations within our means. Hopefully this will make sense.